posted 08-01-2012 03:39 AM ET (US)        

I had no idea it was illegal to park a trailer, without an attached tow vehicle, on a public street in the city I live in Southern California. Admittedly, ignorance of the law doesn't excuse the infraction. However, what chafes me is the fact that I have seen several boats on trailers [without] a tow vehicle attached, throughout the city. After 72 hours as such, they can be impounded, but they're not. Quite a few have been out for months, in between use. I live in a city that has a very low crime rate, except for maybe white collar crime, and therefore the police have little to do, but I'm pretty sure unattached trailer patrol isn't a priority, unless someone calls in. In which case it becomes low hanging fruit from a public relations point of view. Saving the public from the negative impacts on their bucolic Sunset Magazine concept of proper neighborhood aesthetics. Please. Anyway, just wanted to express my disdain for people who have no better ambitions in life than to call law enforcement in to address their perception of urban blight.

I have no intention of storing the boat and trailer in my [driveway] or on the street, although the day I first parked out front to decommision some of the [previous owner's] accessories and dirt, without question, neighbors I rarely have more than ten words with in a month, were already asking where I planned on keeping it by their third sentence. Their underlying agenda was obvious self incrimination. In the end, I plan on keeping it on a Jetdock side-tie in the marina nearby. Eventually, the trailer will be stored on an RV parking lot managed by our homeowners association--a separate story, but it works- sort of.

So, in the end, I owe the city $50 I wouldn't otherwise have had to pay, had I been more knowledgeable of parking laws, or if the [home owners association] staff hadn't been on vacation when I needed the RV storage parking spot. Is a 42-space RV storage parking strip such a specialized operation that only one person is trained to manage it in an office of six staff?

I did get a warning notice the day before, and the codes they referred to were accompanied by abstracts specifying the nature of the parking infractions, but they only singled out a 72-hour parking limit for any vehicle; absolutely no mention of unattached trailers.

posted 08-01-2012 09:19 AM ET (US)            

I really don't know what the exact regulations are in my neighborhood, but in the spring and fall, especially, it is common to see boats or camping trailers parked for a few days around the village as people get them out of storage or get them ready for winter storage.

posted 08-01-2012 11:12 AM ET (US)            

Moved to Wisconsin last spring to join my significant other running dive boats there, same thing. Nice polite boat and neighbor relations, no hassles. In fact things are even more laid back, and generally speaking the police are the friends of the people that they serve (key word there, they *serve* us), and culturally folks smile and wave and nobody gets too worked up about the boat in the driveway.

Now I am working in Southern California for 2 months, whhich I do twice a year and have done for the last two years. All I can say is that here the social contract that is expected in every other place of the USA is completely different. EVERYTHING is over regulated, and EVERYONE seems to know their "rights" and is not afraid to assert them. Case in point: I check into a hotel near LAX, and am put on the tenth floor. This is a first-world hotel, cannot remember if it was the Hilton, or ? but it was in that league. Intertestingly, I find the draperies are nailed shut and I cannot open them. Dark room? No way to open the curtains? Leatherman tool comes out and in a few minutes I have opened the curtains. FIVE minutes later I get a call from the hotel manager telling me to close my drapes. Seems that the local gentry objects to people "up above" being able to look down into their neighborhood... and have gotten a law passed. I tell the manager in polite terms that this is absurd. He informs me that if do not comply, the police will come, cite me, and I will be subject to arrest if I do it a second time. "Welcome to SoCal". Too many people, sharing all too few resources, and this is the result.

To say that I am not surprised that the original poster was hassled is an understatement. It's beautiful here, but so over-regulated that unless you experience it, you cannot imagine it.

Dave (counting the days before I get outta here...)

posted 08-01-2012 11:37 AM ET (US)            

Have you checked out Ventura? It is a very nice place close to LA. We should go catch some Calicos at Anacapa to give you a better view of SoCal.

posted 08-01-2012 04:06 PM ET (US)            

I work weekdays at Edwards AFB in the middle of the Antelope Valley of the Sunny Mojave Desert flying MiG's, (really) and weekends I am bored to tears. I have driven to Santa Barbara and to San Diego just to see some water, and would love to get a day out on the water sometime... learning to despise sand. It's more painful when I know that my SO is up in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan running diving charters and that I am not there. Oh well.

Dave

posted 08-01-2012 04:41 PM ET (US)            

"This time" I do not have my gear with me, my 17 year old Daughter just left after a 2 week visit and we agreed that next summer we will ship out our gear in advance and do some diving. She's a competent boat/drysuit diver. I'll be back (solo) in January and February, unsure if diving season here is all winter? Advice sought. Be open circuit 80's, not rebreather stuff.

Take a look at www.ccrexplorers.com when you can. I know you've slowed down the rebeather stuff, but we're still plugging away.

Dave

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posted 08-01-2012 07:56 PM ET (US)            

I now things have changed since my childhood, but what ever happened to neighbors that get along, seems everyone wants to call the police to confront a neighbor doing something they don't like.

I can only park my Revenge 22 WT in my driveway for 24 hours for prepping or unloading. I can park it in my back yard, which I do from time to time but it kills the grass if I do it too much. I'm on first name basis with local code enforcement officer, who cuts me slack if I tell them my work hours don't quite mesh with the in-out hours at my storage facility and I need more time. I took them to task when they said you can't store a boat in your front yard.....it wasn't in my front yard, it was on my paved driveway!!! ughhhhh.

But what really got me lately is this....my oldest son, 20 yoa, lives in East Lansing where he goes to school. He lives in a house with two friends. The house is on a huge piece of property that is surrounded on three sides by woods and one side by the road. Last Saturday my youngest son went up to visit his brother overnight. Now I know college kids party, and sometimes park their cars where they shouldn't. Well last Sunday morning there were six cars parked on and straddling the side of the gravel driveway probably 70 yards from the roadway. at 9:00AM on Sunday morning, an E. Lansing Police Cadet, who evidently attends the academy during the week and does parking enforcement on weekends wrote parking tickets on all 6 cars for "Yard Parking" (he eveidently hasn't been to the class on "Discretion" yet. I spoke with the Police Department and they said if you're parked in the driveway and any portion of any tire on a vehicle touches the grass, it's a violation. $35 a piece
I told them what I thought of paying rent at this location for my son to live there while attending college, as well as two of my cars being issued tickets while parked on private residential property,,,,,9:00am on a Sunday morning, you've gotta be kidding me!!!! As a police Officer for 40 years I find that unacceptable, if the cars were parked on the front lawn between the road & house on a constant basis I could understand the ticket. I think E. Lansing has a ticket Mill going!!!

posted 08-02-2012 11:13 AM ET (US)            

All that said, yeah, we're a nation operating under the rule of law, but we all know, especially with traffic laws, that laws are selectively enforced. In the case of many parking infractions like mine, these are simple issues that law enforcement and city managers address and at the same time gain public relations points from the tax payer who called in to complain about the parking, eventhough that tax payer has no more right in that public right of way than you or I. Therefore, I say it's opportunistic of law enforcement to go out and go after the 'low hanging fruit', just to placate a tax payer whose aesthetic senses are offended; this is the kind of activity that polarizes a neighborhood and breeds suspicion and doubt about the adjoiners (purposefully avoiding the term 'neighbors')

As I stated originally, in my case there was a warning notice placed on Monday, specifying the 72 hour limit, but not a word on 'unattached trailers'. So I moved the boat/trailer the required 1/10th of a mile. On Tuesday, I had a ticket specifying the local city code for 'unattached trailers'. That CODE was specified on the warning the day before, but without any breif description or reference to 'unattached trailers'. Monday night I looked up the first code specified on said warning, being the states' 72 hr limit, but never looked up the city code on 'unatteched trailers', so I blame myself; again, law enforcement would never have cared about the entire issue had it not been for a call received from someone in the neighborhood who has an agenda and lots of time. Once the call is made, the local PD doesn't want to appear non-responsive or indifferent, especially in a small city. Were this Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, etc, the PD probalby would have ignored it and told the caller: Yes, we'll get right on it as soon as we catch up with all the homicides, drug dealers, robberies hookers, burglaries, DUI's, etc, etc.
I'll pay the fine, accompanied with a letter specifying that if they really intend to serve the public, they shouldn't be so lazy with the language and clearly state on their warnings exactly what the codes specify, not just merely quoting "CMC 10.40.200".
And to my adjoiners and their adjoiners: your lives and environment are as one dimensional as the fabric you think your 'neighborhood' is made of.

posted 08-22-2012 08:42 PM ET (US)            

If I had a dollar for every time someone I knew got home late, separated boat from truck or trash hauling trailer from truck and said "Oh I'll get around to it in the morning", I'd be rich.

Any suggestion that tickets get "fixed" or negated by calling the City Manager is a thing of the past. An attorney in the City Prosecutor's office called in a favor, with a police contact, who lifted her ticket. It came to light, it was a BIG DEAL, and they both lost their jobs. As a result, additional checks and balances are now built into the system, to make sure tickets don't disappear, by anyone's hands.

If you want to fight your case, go to court. You will be there an entire day fighting that $50 ticket.

I have a vindictive neighbor, who was hell bent on keeping the neighborhood looking like Pleasantville, and I get the concept, I don;t watch to look at anyone else's POS. I don't expect to pull into my driveway and see someone with a vehicle on the lawn. But you don't call the police repeatedly until they come out and ticket someone, you talk to your neighbor and present your concerns.

In some communities in So Cal, they can tell you what roofing material you must use, the color palettes allowed for exterior colors, what plantings are permitted on the property when considering the view from the street. Its all very out in the open and the choice is yours.

Frankly, of all of the states I have lived in, I think California is generally better maintained than other areas, and that works for me.